Comparisons of CloudSat cloud features and TRMM precipitation features

CloudSat Cloud Features (CFs) are defined by vertically grouping the pixels with cloud mask and cloud radar reflectivity greater than -28 dBZ from one year (July 2006 - June 2007) of CloudSat GeoProf-2B products. The horizontal size, maximum reflectivity profile and other properties for each CF are summarized. For comparison, TRMM Precipitation features (PFs) are defined by vertically grouping the nadir only pixels with TRMM precipitation radar reflectivity greater than 20 dBZ using 9 years of TRMM observations.

Since CloudSat has a sun-synchronous orbit and only observes at two local times, the global distribution of cloud occurrence from CFs and precipitation occurrence from PFs over tropics are compared at different altitudes near CloudSat's 0130 and 1330 overpass times. The differences of ratios from PF precipitation area to areas with cloud radar reflectivity greater than -10 dBZ, 0dBZ, 10dBZ and with cloud mask from CFs are demonstrated. The statistics of characteristics of CFs and PFs such as horizontal size, echo top height, and vertical structure are compared over tropical land and ocean regionally and seasonally.